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Student support for undergraduates across the UK in 2026/27

This page is a summary of the full PDF report Student support for undergraduates across the UK in 2026/27. For details of support in earlier years see the page Student support for undergraduates across the UK.

Higher education is devolved in the UK, which means England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland each have their own funding arrangements and student finance systems.

Tuition fees and student support

In all parts of the UK, students are charged tuition fees and publicly funded loans are available to cover the cost of fees. Scotland is unique in that tuition fees for eligible Scottish students are paid by the Scottish Government.

The different student funding bodies within the UK also provide living cost support in the form of publicly funded maintenance loans, grants, and bursaries. Additional funding may also be available to students depending on their personal circumstances, for example if they have a disability or childcare costs.  

The nature and amount of support students receive is determined by where they normally live, not where they study. To ensure they have applied for everything to which they may be entitled, students should consult the website of their respective student finance body: 

• Student Finance England
• Student Finance Wales
• Student Awards Agency Scotland
• Student Finance NI

Students must reapply for support each year of their course. Information on eligibility for home fee status and student support is available in the relevant Commons Library casework article for England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. 

The following charts and table provide a broad summary of key student support in 2026/27. Please see the relevant section of the briefing for full details of living cost loans, grants, and additional support available in each part of the UK.

Sources: Gov.UK, Student Finance; Student Finance Wales, Undergraduate Students, Student Awards Agency Scotland, Full-time student funding; Student Finance NI, Full-time undergraduate, accessed 9 June 2026

Students begin to repay any loans when they start earning over a certain amount. Grants and bursaries do not have to be repaid. Information on paying back student loans, the repayment threshold, and the current interest rates can be found at gov.uk, Repaying your student loan and in the Commons Library briefing Student loans: Interest rates and repayment thresholds FAQs.

Other funding sources

Guidance published by the Student Loans Company acknowledges that even the maximum amount of Maintenance Loan may not be enough to cover all a student’s living costs. The guidance explains that students are expected to make up the difference themselves, and additional financial support may be available from their parents or partner, part-time employment, savings, or university bursaries and scholarships.

With regards to the latter, these funds are allocated based on criteria set by individual universities. Commonly used criteria include academic, sporting, or musical achievement; household income; geography; and support for particular subjects. Information on these awards will be available on the funding pages of university websites. Several websites also provide further sources of advice on student finance. These include:

• UCAS, Undergraduate student finance and support
• Save the Student, Student bursary and scholarship sources

The Commons Library casework article Financial support for higher education students also sets out what other support is available to students across the UK to help with their living costs.

How much do students spend on living costs?

The National Student Accommodation Survey 2026, which is a self-selecting survey by Save the Student, found the average UK monthly rent for students was £575 per month, up from £563 in 2025. A report by the housing charity Unipol and the Higher Education Policy Institute found the average student rent in London in 2024 (£13,595) was more than the maximum student loan for those from England (£13,348). Of those surveyed by Save the Student, 61% said they struggled with the cost of rent, and 36% said they had thought about dropping out of university as a result.

Findings from the National Student Money Survey 2025, another self-selecting survey by Save the Student, found 61% of students skip meals at least some of the time to save money, which was down from the 67% of students who said the same in the 2024 survey. However, the proportion of those surveyed who said they had used a food bank increased slightly compared to the previous year's survey from 9% to 10%.

More information on how the rising cost of living has affected students in recent years can be found on the Commons Library website.

Are student support levels sufficient?

The Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University calculated in 2024 that, for domestic students studying outside of London who were entitled to the maximum level of maintenance support, there was a shortfall of £8,405 per year between their loan and what the CRSP determined was a socially acceptable standard of living. The 2025 National Student Money Survey found there was, on average, £502 a month shortfall between a student’s living costs and the maintenance loan.

In March 2023, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Students published a report on the increasing financial pressures students were facing (PDF). It highlighted how the rising cost of living was disproportionately affecting marginalised and under-participating groups of students, including disabled students, black and minority ethnic students, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, care leavers, and students who were estranged from their families.

The APPG for students report also highlighted the rise in students working increasing hours in paid employment alongside full-time study in order to support themselves, and the possible consequences for their academic results, mental wellbeing, and graduate employment prospects. This trend has continued. The 2026 Unite Students Applicant Index, which is based on a survey of 2,200 respondents intended to be broadly representative of those applying for university, found that 87% of applicants expected to work during term time (with 32% expected to work more than 16 hours a week) and income from employment was expected to be as important as the maintenance loan for helping cover living costs.

Local data

The data and analysis in the full PDF report paper is broken down into the different arrangements across the UK. The only further geographical factor which determins support eligbility is whether or not the student is studying in London (away from home). These higher amounts are also detailed in the full PDF report.

Further reading

Previous versions of this paper looking at student support in earlier years can be found on the archive page. The following Commons Library briefings contain statistics and information on student support in the UK:

• Eligibility for home fee status and student support inEngland, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
• The value of student maintenance support
• Tuition fees in England: History, debates, and international comparisons
• Tuition Fee statistics
• Student loan statistics
• Medical, dental, and healthcare students: UK numbers and student support arrangements
• Student support for the over 60s